You'll Have To Lose Something

2018年作『HYPNIC JERKS』で話題を呼び、2021年作『ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH』で評価とセールス共に絶大な威力を叩き出したスピリット・オブ・ザ・ビーハイヴ。インディ・ロックとサンプリングを駆使し独特なエクスペリメンタルを披露し続ける彼等から3年振りのフルアルバム『YOU'LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING』が到着!

先行シングル"LET THE VIRGIN DRIVE"で日本のシティ・ポップ(!)を飲み込むというウルトラC級センスを炸裂!前半の切ないキラメキ内に潜む歪みやサイケな音を聴きつつ、中盤でニュース等をサンプリングしたアヴァンギャルドの渦へ。終盤でまたキラメキに戻るという、バンドのこの3年間を音で表した感性は凄まじい!

制作中は他のアーティストの音源を聴かないというスピリット・オブ・ザ・ビーハイヴ。結果3人の中で生まれるグルーヴに過去一番で乗っかている本作を是非!

Following the critical success of Entertainment, Death, Spirit of the Beehives 2021 Saddle Creek debut, bandmembers Zack Schwartz and Rivka Ravede ended their relationship. They addressed this with Im So Lucky, a 2023 EP that felt relatively stripped-down compared to their erratic usual work. The full-length Youll Have to Lose Something further reflects on lost love and its aftereffects, and its constantly shifting arrangements mirror a state of uncertainty and conflicting emotions. As ever, the band make willfully contradictory music that darts between genres and embraces jarring contrasts. Opener "The Disruption" starts out as fuzzy psych-pop before breaking into an intense shouted/rapped section about existential dread. "Stranger Alive" begins with the sort of heavily processed, textural production the band have become known for, with horn samples swirling around the edges, then spikes with sugary energy when it switches into a brisk indie pop rhythm. "The Cut Depicts the Cut" has an industrial rap verse that downshifts into a slow but not quite sludgy part, and "Let the Virgin Drive" places awkwardly emotive Auto-Tune vocals front and center during key moments. "Sorry Pore Injector" begins with wispy, cloudy smooth jazz saxophone similar to the calm parts of Fire-Toolz records, then hits with chugging alt-rock guitars and lyrics about never having children. The horror-tinged "Somethings Ending" and driving "Ive Been Evil" outwardly express some of the darkest emotions on the album, and "1/500" injects a touch of Springsteen-esque bravado into a song that otherwise sounds lush and trippy. Youll Have to Lose Something is as disorienting and messy as other Spirit of the Beehive releases, but it does strangely feel like theres a sense of comfort to the way theyve honed their craft. They havent stopped being unpredictable and confounding, and theyre even exploring deeper emotional territory than before, yet their work becomes more cohesive the more one becomes familiar with it. ~ Paul Simpson